Jazz Articles about Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola at Balboa Theater

by Jim Worsley
September 30, 2017

Al Di Meola Balboa Theater San Diego, CA September 22, 2017 Most of us have been on many journeys in life. It might be globetrotting or a trip to the grocery store or all and everything in between. A journey can be filled with a myriad of the expected and unexpected. Of stops and starts. Of turns and curves. Of upgrades and downslopes. There are bumps in the road and detours. Al Di ...

Al Di Meola: Elysium

by Doug Collette
November 7, 2015

Virtually all of guitarist Al DiMeola's recordings since the days of Return to Forever are listenable to a greater or lesser degree, but his last couple have been truly exceptional. A genuine affection for the Beatles permeates All Your Life (In-Akustik, 2013) and the comparably deep, lush textures of the ever-so-appropriately titled Elysium are rooted in a spontaneity that is unusual for a musician so technically adept he sometimes has to fight to play with genuine abandon. Not ...

Al Di Meola at the Soiled Dove Underground, Denver

by Geoff Anderson
October 29, 2015

Al Di Meola Soiled Dove Underground Denver, CO October 19, 2015 Jazz and rock began their courtship in the late 1960s. For a while, it seemed like they would never get together. From the beginning of rock 'n' roll in the '50s, the two genres had kept their distance from one another, each professing its distaste for the other. Yet despite their initial antipathy, despite their feelings that they had nothing in common, that they ...

Al Di Meola: Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody

by Stephen Wood
April 3, 2011

Those who follow the guitar world are likely to be familiar with Al Di Meola, either from his stint with Return to Forever or his own,four-decade solo career. As wide-reaching as the possibilities of his fretboard, from electric jazz fusion to acoustic world music, Di Meola has built a reputation as a fantastic guitarist. Unencumbered by any particular genre, he remains true to form on Pursuit of a Radical Rhapsody; his exciting Pat Metheny-meets-Baden Powell-meets-Joe Satriani-meets-Andres Segovia style in full ...

Return to Forever: Return to Forever: The Anthology

by Tom Greenland
August 11, 2008

In support of their 2008 reunion tour, Concord Records has released Return to Forever: The Anthology, a selective overview of the quartet's classic 'middle period.' Formed by principal composer/keyboardist Chick Corea, RTF included bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Lenny White and guitarists Bill Connors or Al DiMeola. An alumnus of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969), inspired by Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, as well as Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes, Corea recorded two RTF albums with Clarke (a former compatriot ...

The Anthology

by John Kelman
June 5, 2008

One of the seminal fusion bands of the 1970s, keyboardist Chick Corea's Return to Forever, alongside like-minded but completely different groups including Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, not only went to vinyl sales territory few jazz artists had gone before, but to arena tours more normally associated with big ticket rock groups. But the music of RTF was never meant to be intimate. The high velocity and high volume playing was far more fitting ...

Al Di Meola: Consequence of Chaos

by Doug Collette
September 28, 2006

After graduating from the Berklee School of Music, Al Di Meola gained visibility as the electric guitarist in Chick Corea's best-known version of Return to Forever. With the dissolution of that jazz-rock fusion band, Di Meola pursued a variety of avenues, many of which he seamlessly recapitulates on Consequence of Chaos.

The title may refer to the recording process of the disc or world events, but it may also be intended ironically. The atmosphere of the music in its varied ...